Confidence is Key

Confidence is the belief you have in your abilities. A healthy self-esteem helps define your self-worth and is not dependent on your level of success.You like and love who you are, and it gives you a positive yet realistic view of your self and your expectations, while avoiding being overconfident and impetuous. Even when some expectations are not met, you do not compare your self to others, you stand up for what you believe in, do not fear challenges or the unknown, you accept your limitations, stay positive, and are proud of your self for simply trying to accomplish your goals.

Many elements influence self-confidence. Building confidence often starts with parenting during early childhood development. When parents give love after their children make mistakes and applaud their independence, children receive a strong base for loving and accepting themselves.

Lack of confidence can create a road block to pursuing your dreams, especially if you’re basing your next move on a past failure. Often times people focus entirely too much energy on the potential results and opinions of others instead focusing on the process and enjoying the journey. When expectations aren’t met, you doubt yourself and your self-image becomes weak.

How do you stop doubting yourself and turn up the self-love? Thankfully lack of confidence is not permanent. Check out my 11 healthy ways to boost self-confidence and establish a better self-image.

1. Take Risks

Do one thing that scares you every day. The best way to conquer your fear is to face it, and that is even more reason to step outside of your comfort zone. Your courage and bravery will make you feel like you’re on top of the world, and you’ll gain more confidence with every experience.

2. Set Small Goals

It’s OK to get your feet wet before diving in. Set a few small goals based on what you can realistically achieve, and then work step-by-step to develop your plan. Once you accomplish these goals, celebrate your successes, then make each goal afterwards a little more audacious than the previous.

3. Focus on Your Strengths

We are all good at one thing or another. Take your strengths and ask yourself, “What can I do with these today?”

4. Be Your Own Hype Man

A hype man is the person who helps gets the crowd amped up before a show. You may have cheerleaders in your corner, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t believe in your self. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. Comparing your self to others is a waste of who you are. Don’t let what makes you special go out the window. As I said in step two, celebrate your successes, cheer yourself on, and give credit where credit is due!

5. Develop Your Talents

We all have skills, and now is the time to develop them if you haven’t already. Take the music lessons you’ve dreamed about, get a language tutor, try a new sport, or take that cool art class you never signed up for. Learning something new ignites your creativity and builds your self-worth.

6. Bring Your Sexy Back

When you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, you move through life confidently. Your mood will be lighter and you’ll resonate good vibes. Buy a new outfit and show a little skin or muscle. Hit the gym. Get a massage, full body scrub or mani/pedi. Get a new hair cut and add a spray or two of your favorite perfume or cologne, then flirt with your crush, wink at a stranger, or just love your self because you look good. Being comfortable in your skin is sexy.

7. Meet New People

The next time you’re hanging out with friends, excuse your self from your usual crowd, flourish in all of your social butterfly greatness, and work the room. Spark up a conversation with the person who’s alone at the bar. Compliment someone on their sense of style. You never know who you will rub elbows with.

8. Be of Service

There will always be someone better than you, and reciprocally there will always be someone worse off than you. Community service is a great way to help disadvantaged people in underserved communities. You can also help the people who you already know and cherish. Being a person with confidence effects how you think, act, feel and treat others, and how you feel about yourself. So go ahead! Volunteer your time, services, or extra money to family, friends, or complete strangers. You may bring hope to someone’s life, and make them feel good. Consequently you’ll feel good, too.

9. Learn from Your Family, Friends, and Mentors

It’s OK to ask for advice from the people you care about and who care about you. They may offer you a type of priceless encouragement that boosts your confidence. Also, look to your mentors. These may be people who you respect and inspire you, and are living in a confident state-of-mind that you hope to reach. Find out what are they doing differently, and see how you can apply some of their positive ways to your life.

10. Change Your Way of Thinking

Negative thinking is a pretty nasty habit, and low self-esteem depends of it. It’s time to go out with the old, and come in with the new! I know it takes time to transition those low vibrational thoughts into greater ones, but it’s worth the time and effort. You have to go out of your way and make it a priority – your confidence depends on it.

11. Forgive Your Self

We are all our own worst critics, and we all make mistakes. Stop judging and being so hard on your self. So it didn’t work out before, that doesn’t mean you can’t dust your self off and try again. Life is a roller coaster, but just know that when you are down, you can only go up from there, and that should be a confidence booster.

I hope these steps help you to lead a more confident life with a higher self-esteem. You are worth it so act like it, and don’t let anyone tell you and make you feel differently.